Hidden in plain sight
by Trinxy
Summary: Yasmin finds the Doctor fiddling with the TARDIS when she thinks everyone is sleeping. While repairing the ship, the TARDIS takes things to her own hand and pushes them into an adventure that neither of them will ever forget.
1. Chapter 1

_"Ugh, what is wrong with you, girl?"_

Yas hears a cry of protest from the console room right when she is stepping in.

While Doctor needs no sleep, she and Ryan and Graham always require to have some shuteye to keep up with the blonde madwoman.

"What happened?" Yas asks from the Doctor, who had shed her coat next to a yellow pillar and is staring at the central crystal of the TARDIS. As soon as she hears Yas's voice, she turns around with a start and stares at the dark-haired woman, hand on one of her hearts.

"Oh geez, you gave me a fright," she breathes out, smiling at Yas.

"Sorry," Yas mumbles. "I didn't mean to. I just heard you talking. Who were you talking with?"

Doctor glances back at the crystal and frowns. "I was just talking to the old girl. She has been acting weird lately."

"Who?" Yas frowns in confusion.

"The TARDIS," Doctor says, while turning back to the console, staring it intently. "She doesn't make sense anymore. I know that she sometimes brings me to places where I need to be, but this is getting ridiculous. It's like I have no say anymore, she does what she wants."

The yellow central crystal let out a whirring sound and moved up and down. The Doctor squinted her eyes and looked at the console and burst out, "Really? I know how to drive!"

The crystal whirred again and the TARDIS shuddered.

The Doctor slides her hands across one of the keyboards and murmurs "Come on, please? What's wrong with you?"

But the TARDIS remains silent and the control room stands still. Even Yas doesn't want to move in fear of ruining a moment, whatever this moment is.

The Doctor seems to have forgotten that Yas is there and starts pulling out some wires from the open panel to her right. She seems to be in the middle of fixing whatever the problem she thought there was with the TARDIS.

"So," Yas asks softly, "What is the problem with your ship?"

Doctor, who ,managed to distract herself again, startles again with the sudden noise. "Oh, sorry."

Yas apologizes again and steps closer to the panel, standing next to the Doctor. She is fiddling with the wires but looks up to her and beaming a smile.

"No worries, Yas. When I am working, I get distracted easily. I am not used to people hanging around the control room. Usually you lot sleep more."

Yas smiles at her ramblings and shrugs. "I just woke up. I was searching for the kitchen but the layout has changed, so I ended up in here."

The Doctor smiles proudly. "Ah, she tends to play with the corridors sometimes. Seems that she gets bored from time to time."

Suddenly she looks sharply up at the crystal. "Is that what it's about? You are bored and just playing with me? What do you have me do?"

The TARDIS doesn't answer this question either and Doctor just groans in frustration, while continuing to work with the panel. One of the wires touches the panel and zaps Doctor with energy. She pulls her hands out of the way and pushes her thumb into her mouth to soothe the pain, groaning in discomfort.

"Really?" she whispers to the TARDIS.

Yas chuckles at the antics of the Doctor. She and the gang had been travelling with the Doctor for quite a while now, she is slowly getting used to the woman.

"Can I help?" Yas asks, sitting down to one of the benches nearby, keeping an eye on the blonde woman.

The Doctor turns around to face her and scrunches her nose. "No, not really. I was just finishing up anyway. Seems like she doesn't let me rewire the telepathic circuit to the main energy crystal like it used to be, instead she wants it to go through the capacitors first. I don't know why. Well, it's her choice anyway, makes her life harder, not mine."

Yas nods at this information, small smile playing at her lips. "So, no?"

Doctor beams a bright smile to her and waves her hand for her to come closer. "Not really, yes. You can watch. I will teach you how to close off the crystal circuits. Not everyone can do that!"

And so they stand side by side the main panel, Doctor stopping and explaining some details to Yas and her listening all the information she can memorize.

It takes half an hour to finish the job at hand. There's only few wires left to attach back to the crystal panel underneath.

"So THIS here," the Doctor points at the pink ribboned copper wire, "Should be connected to here, so the information from here," she points at the keyboard for navigation system, "could travel through the first board, to the main circle."

"So, basically when you input the data from here," Yas points at the same keyboard and then to the wire "this cable is responsible for relaying the info to the TARDIS main frame."

"Yes, exactly", the Doctor beams another blinding smiles to her young companion. "You are surprising me, Yas. You learn very fast."

"Thank you," Yas blushes slightly at Doctor's praise. "I just think all of this," she waves her hand around the TARDIS, "Is very interesting. I want to know as much as possible."

"That is a very positive attitude," the Doctor nods and sighs. "Necessary for survival in this universe. Sometimes negativity can cloud your judgment and then you can take wrong decisions and end up in places you don't want to be."

"Has that happened to you?" Yas prods a little bit.

Doctor has not shared too much about her past or what her life has been. Sometimes she shares a little but never enough to get the full picture.

"Yeah," Doctor gives her a sad smile. "Many times."

"Oh." Yas mumbles. "I am sorry."

"No, don't be sorry, Yas." Doctor shakes her head and her sad smile brightens up a little bit. "Tough times help you learn valuable lessons."

Yas looks her companion with a curious eye while the person of her interest just shakes the sad memories away, perks up and turns her attention to the console again.

"Let's finish this up, shall we?" Doctor asks. Yas nods with a smile and they start the long process again.

Just as they are finishing attaching the last wire, the TARDIS lets out a shudder and a groan and all of a sudden, they are in flight in the time vortex. Doctor and Yas both grab hold of the console to keep them upright and look up to the main crystal.

The familiar whooshing sound fills the air and as suddenly as the flight started, they land.

"What did you do?" Doctor asks aloud.

Yas shakes her head. "I didn't do anything, I swear!"

"I wasn't talking to you." The Doctor continues. "I was asking from the old girl. She just activated herself and landed somewhere new."

She peeks at one of the screens and pushes two or more buttons.

"Interesting," she murmurs.

"What's happened?" Yas steps closer, trying to peek at the screen. She finds herself disappointed when there is only these round circle-y things moving around on the screen.

"She landed us on 11th century England."

"Why," Yas asks.

"Is the right question," The Doctor nods and smiles to her companion. "Let's find out, shall we?"

Doctor starts walking towards the door, grabbing her coat and sonic along the way. She has almost reached the door when Yas catches up with her.

"Hey wait!" she calls the doctor "what about Graham and Ryan?"

Doctor stands there for a second, thinking. "They are still asleep, we will only check a little bit, we will be back by the time they wake up."

"Are you sure?" Yas asks, a doubt on her features. There has been many times when their short adventures end up being days to a week long trying times.

Doctor slips the sonic out of her pocket and points to the console. Whirring sound fills the entrance area and Yas hears a row of beeps from the machine.

"I left them a message in case they wake up early. Let's go," she grabs Yas's hand and pulls her out of the TARDIS with a glee on her face.

Yas has to blink rapidly several times to actually see around, when they reach outside. The sun is bright in the blue sky and she covers her eyes with one hand, while the other is still pulled by the Doctor.

"Where are we exactly?" she asks, taking in the beauty of the nature. It doesn't look like England to her. Too many mountains and lochs.

"Are we in Scotland?" Yas wonders out loud.

"It seems so," Doctor nods. "Why would she lie about that?" she mumbles to herself.

The Doctor doesn't really stop walking, nor does she let go of Yas's hand. Yas smiles at that and keeps walking behind the blonde, trying to keep up with her wild pace.

All of a sudden, the Doctor stops without any warning, making Yas to plow into her. The dark haired girl lets loose a muffled squeak and tries to find her bearings. It takes her some few seconds and she notices that the Doctor is almost motionless and her eyes are pinned to something up the hill.

Yas looks towards the Doctors line of sight and there she sees it too. A human-like figure standing there, looking at them. Clothed in almost unearthly garb, it stands there, motionless, eyes full of surprises and shock.

"Hello?" the Doctor suddenly yells out. "Can you tell us where we are?"

The human-like form startle svisibly.

It turns around slowly.

… and runs.


	2. Chapter 2

"What?" Yas breathes out.

This was about the only thing she had time to say before the Doctor released her hand and sprinted off towards where the figure had disappeared.

Yas groans out loud and takes off after her, she doesn't want to be alone in this day and time. Who knows what kind of creatures and humans would be lying await.

Doctor has already crossed the clearing and running up the hill towards the woods. Yas tries to sprint as fast as she can but doesn't really catch up with her until the Doctor stops and looks at her sonic in confusion.

"Lost it," the Doctor explains breathlessly.

"The guy?" Yas asks, reaching next to the doctor and trying to catch her breath as well.

"Yeah, well," the Doctor nods. "I think we might assume he was a guy. But according to the sonic, that was not a human."

"What was it?" Yas looks at the Doctor, nose scrunched.

Doctor stares at the sonic with even more confusion and distress.

"An elf."

Yas's mouth drops open. "Are you kidding me? An actual elf? Like in the Tolkien books?"

"Who?" Doctor spares a quick glance to Yas.

"A fiction writer. Very famous. He wrote The Hobbit."

Doctor smiles before focusing back to her sonic. "Ah, him. I haven't met him yet. Maybe one of these days."

Yas just throws the Doctor a curios glance and looks at the tall group of trees before her, where the assumed elf disappeared to.

"Do you think it is an actual elf?" she asks from the Time Lord. "Not like an alien like Vulcans?"

"Could be," the Doctor sighs. "I mean not a real Vulcan. Well there is no such thing as a real Vulcan but you get what I mean? My sonic is not really sure but it seems that elf was the closest thing it could match. Oh, it means it's something new, something I have never seen before." She smiles to Yas, one of these blinding smiles that makes her whole being shine. "Come on, Yas. Let's find him. I want to meet this new alien life form. This is exciting!"

And with that, she takes off again.

Yas rolls her eyes and follows the blonde woman with a chuckle. These kinds of episodes seem to happen a lot these days.

Since she had already lost the Doctor from her sight, she follows the rustling between the trees she hears somewhere in front of her.

"Oooh!" Yas hears a surprised yelp from the woods and races uphill to see what happened to the Doctor. When she reaches to the next clearing, Doctor stands there, scanning big row of rocks with her sonic.

Yas looks around and realizes that the rocks she thought there were random, form a line, a half circle of some sorts, parting the clearing in two. She can also see the row of rocks continuing to the two sides of the clearing and disappearing into the forest.

"Oh," Yas breathes out as well, sonic screwdriver's buzzing continuing somewhere around her. "It's like a Stonehenge. In the forest. This is so cool!

"It's not a Stonehenge," comes the voice of the Doctor behind one of the big and central monoliths.  
"Well, duh, I know that," Yas answers back. "But what is it? Why is it here?"

"All very good questions Yas," Doctor huffs out, weaving between the big rocks, touching here and there. "I am not sure yet."

"What do you mean?"

Doctor looks at Yas and nods. "Well they look like stones. But they are not. They have some kind of energy field around them but it's nothing like I have ever seen before."

"Something new?" Yas prompts.

The Doctor squints her eyes and scrunches her nose. "Not really. This reminds me of the deadlock seal system. The energy signatures are kind of similar but at the same time it's fundamentally different as well. It's like they have used the best features and then tied it with something of their own, which I have no idea about. And I love not knowing about thing. It's such a weird feeling!"

The Doctor stopped pacing around and is just staring at the biggest rock on the clearing with awe. "Who would have thought that rocks will give me feelings? Way to go rocks!"

With a bright smile and a wave of her hand, she touched the big rock, making it shudder.

"Stay back," The Doctor threw a glance at Yas. "The stone just moved."

"I get that yes," Yas shuddered and stepped back few steps, loosing her balance and promptly falling down on her ass, nocking her shoulder against a smaller boulder.

The big stone made a noise at that and all of a sudden Yas saw symbols on the rock next to Doctor glow in faint green glow.

"Whoa," the blonde said, watching them in awe.

She cheered, "You must have activated something!"

Yas swallowed at that and tried to get up from the ground, touching the same stone she had elbowed before again.

"Oh, the symbols are gone!" Doctor huffed in disappointment. She turned her gaze to Yas. "What did you do?"

"I just fell over and hit the stone over here," she grumbled, standing fully upright and brushing off leaves and dirt from her backside. "I didn't do anything else!"

Doctor huffed out another breath and breezed past Yas to inspect the stone with her sonic.

"Even more interesting," she mumbled. She extended her arm and pressed her hand against the stone. It hummed in a low frequency and they both turned their heads to the central stone. And there it was, symbols on the surface monolith again.

"This must be the activator," she cheered and patted the dark-haired woman to the back "Good job Yas! Helping me out here!"

"I really didn't do anything," Yas mumbles but blushes at the sudden attention.

Doctor just smiles and says. "But look, we have symbols now, one step closer to solving the mystery!"

And with that, she promptly walks away from Yas and starts to sonic-scan the huge rock.

Yas is quiet for a while and let the Doctor do her thing, but as she stops actively sonicing, Yas moves closer to her and curiously glances the symbols.

"What do they mean?" she asks, eyeing them with interest. Some of them look familiar somehow, but many of them are not even close to her understanding.

"I have no idea," the Doctor smiles. "Some of the symbols resemble the characteristics of Silurian language but, the TARDIS should have been able to translate it. But this, however, is not translated. So, it means that it's not really a language. It has to be something else."

"So, they are just pictures?" Yas asks bending closer to the stone surface to see how the symbols are imbedded in there. She notices no other grooves or markings and the surface of the stone throughout the images looks the same.

"Not just pictures. Symbols," the Doctor shakes her head. "They must mean something to somebody. Otherwise they wouldn't be here in the first place. But why are they here and what are they for?"

Yas squints her eyes and leans closer to the rock. "Hey, Doctor. I think these symbols are not from the stone itself. They are somehow projected onto the surface."

Doctor hurries closer to her and shuffles right next her, squinting her eyes as well in the process. "You are right! But how? This is amazing!"

She nudges Yas aside and stares at the symbols. The darker woman huffs in annoyance but yields to Doctor's antics and steps away.

Instead of making sense of how the symbols are done, she decides to walk around the huge monolith and figure out what they mean. As she is finishing her second circle around the stone, she notices something.

"Doc!" she calls her friend. "Do you know which way is the North?"

Doctor stops sonicing the surface of the rock and looks up to Yas, nose scrunched. "Should be that way." She indicates with the wave of her hand. "Why?"

"It's just," Yas hesitates. "These symbols, some of them seem to be pointing to the north with their sharp ends – look here," she points to the upper right of the symbols. Then she walks a little bit forward. "And these point to the south." She takes another step. "And these point to the east and the other side they point to the west."

Doctor had stood up while Yas was explaining and was now following her around.

"But why some of them have no sharp ends?" Doctor asks, walking around the stone.

"I don't know. But there is some kind of a pattern here." Yas supplies.

"Yes. There is." Doctor nods and circles the huge monolith one more time. Then she touches one of the rounder symbols. They both hear a swishing sound come from their right, making Yas jump. She shuffles closer to the Doctor.

"What are you doing?" She whispers loudly.

"I want to see if I am right." The Doctor answers calmly, touching another one of the rounder symbols, making another swishy sound somewhere nearby. She walks all around the stone and touches two more of the symbols and all of a sudden, a wall of light starts to simmer in between two slim stones nearby.

"Oooooh," the Doctor breathes out. "I was right. It IS a doorway. This is where our elf disappeared.

Yas steps closer to the wall of light.

"It's beautiful," she whispers.

"Yes," the Doctor agrees, coming closer to the newly opened portal. "But it's also not very stable."

"Where does it go?" Yas asks, turning her face towards the Doctor.

"No idea," the Doctor shrugs and points the sonic at the portal. As soon as the sonic starts buzzing, a ray of the simmering light engulfs Yas and sucks her into it. The portal closes as fast it had appeared, making Doctor stand there in utter horror.

"This is not good, this is not good," she mutters and runs back to the big stone again. She activates the monolith again, touches the shimmering symbols but nothing happens, except a spark of light between the slim stones. She quickly checks her sonic and groans out in frustration.

"This is not good," she mutters again, taking off towards the TARDIS.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hello?" Ryan calls out to the empty console room. But there was no answer. He shrugs and steps closer to the now darkened console.

To say it felt weird to be there, alone in the quiet room, was an understatement. Every time the gang went to sleep, the Doctor usually stayed up, tinkering something in the main engine, which was somewhere underneath the walkway. Or she would be picking some stuff from the console, while heavily arguing with the TARDIS itself. It had been weird at first, but it was a thing they _all_ had gotten used to.

But right now, there room is empty and the lights are off. As he approaches the console, the lights turn again, as if sensing him entering the area. There is blinking light image, coming from one of the screens and he touches it.

He always feels a bit guilty when he touches anything in the TARDIS, The Doctor having made clear that nobody was touching anything but her. But now the screen became alive underneath his fingers and a message appears.

 _"Landed in 11th century England, Yas and I went to check the area out. Stay put, we will be back asap."_

Ryan furrows his eyebrows at that.

11th century England? Why they landed there at the first place and why they didn't wait until the rest of them were awake?

But finally, he shrugs.

It doesn't really matter.

He wants to see now what 11th century looks like.

Abandoning the screen, he starts walking towards the door. He is stopped by the shuffling from the other end of the room.

"Morning, Ryan!" Graham greets his grandson cheerily.

Ryan stops walking and waits for the older man to come closer. "Morning!"

"Where are the others? Yas, The Doc?" he asks, looking around and peeking underneath the console room.

"They left us a message," Ryan says and points to the screen near the console. Graham rises his eyebrows and walks closer to see what is written in there.

"11th century England?" he asks out loud, while Ryan is standing halfway to the doorway. He had sensed that he might not be the only one who would want to check the new place and to his amusement, he was not wrong. Graham turns to face Ryan and starts walking towards him as well.

"Let's check it out?" Ryan asks, a small smile playing on his lips.

"What about Doctor's note? Should we stay put?" Graham queries, but there is not any enthusiasm behind his words.

"We are just gonna look and not going to be far from the TARDIS, in case they come back." Ryan explains looking at Graham.

Graham smiles widely at this. "All right. Let's see what we got here."

Before they even get to make two steps towards the exit, the doors of the TARDIS fly open with a bang, as Doctor rushes in, eyes wide in one part fear and two part worry. At first, she doesn't even notice two of her companions standing there and she rushes past them towards one of the side panels of the room. She drags out some wires and a box that is suspiciously round and starts to shove them into a bag that materialized from nowhere.

"Doc?" Graham asks tentatively, utterly confused about what is going on.

"Oh, Graham. Ryan. Didn't see you there. Sorry. No time to talk. Need the cables. And battery. Now." She keeps talking while she is cramming everything in the bag. When she is finished, she jumps up and races towards the console.

"I need your help, guys." She announces, pushing row of buttons on the console and TARDIS making groaning noises at that.

"Sure," Graham agrees. "As soon as you tell us what's going on. And where is Yas?"

Doctor stops for a second and looks two of the guys standing there. "Sorry, I cannot stay for long, Yas needs me."

"Where is she?" Ryan asks now, seeing the obvious distress on the Doctor's features.

"She was pulled in by a portal. I was sonicing it and she disappeared." Doctor explains in a hurried manner. "Lucky that I was sonicing it. I now know what the portal is for. But I need your help. I need you to fly the TARDIS."

"You what?" Graham and Ryan exclaim in unison, shock on their faces.

"You heard me," the Doctor completely ignores their amazement and keeps pushing and turning the buttons and valves, typing in some information and touching the screen.

"You mean fly the TARDIS like you always fly it?" Ryan finally asks, utter shock still ringing through in his voice.

"We haven't even started to understand the machine yet," Graham adds.

"She is not a machine, Graham," Doctor grumbles. "She is a living being. Inside a box."

"Sorry, Doc. But you cannot be serious."

"Of course, I am, Graham!" Doctor proclaims. "I set everything up so you just have to turn on this here," she points to the one of the valves in the middle of the console. "and then just push the big red button here," she points to the big red button right next to the valve.

"That's it?" Ryan furrows his brows again, confused by the hurricane force of the Doctor sprinting around in the TARDIS.

"Yes. It will come to my call, I synced it up with my sonic. It just has to be activated manually. And that's what you guys will be doing."

"But what about Yas? And you?" Graham still wants to know.

"I am going to get her. That's why I need you guys to fly the TARDIS. Because I will not be here."

"I am confused," Ryan confesses. "How are we gonna get her if we are flying away?"

The Doctor groans in frustration. "I don't have time for this."

She makes the mistake to look to the pleading eyes of Ryan and she sighs. "Okay. Long story short. Yas was pulled in by a portal. But the portal is an access to the time-dilation field where the time is running in a different pace than in here. My sonic picked up that the dilation is slower than the time flow in here. I need to activate the portal and go into the time-dilation field. The time will be running slower for me and by the time we will find a way out of there, you will be old and probably dead. So, I need you guys to activate the locator so I can activate the beacon in the sonic when I get out. So, the TARDIS can find me and land where I am. Did you get all of that?"

Ryan just stares at Doctor for few second and then nods. "Okay. Turn the valve and then push the big red button?"

Doctor smiles. "Yes. Good lad, Ryan. See you guys very soon."

With that, Doctor turns around and whooshes out of the door, closing it with a bang.

Graham shakes his head. "What just happened. Did you understand what she was saying?"

"A bit yeah," Ryan nods. "Yas is in trouble and she is gonna save her but time flows differently there?" He hesitates. "So, she wants us to drive the TARDIS to them if they get out of the portal?"

"Ah. So, we are not checking out the 11th century England?"

"Apparently not" Ryan shakes his head. "Shame. Would have been cool."

Graham steps closer to the console. "Was it this valve?"

Ryan nods and observes Graham turning the valve. Then he gets closer himself as well and pushes the big red button. The TARDIS groans at first but then starts to make whooshing sounds they have been used to, meaning the TARDIS dematerializing.

"Here we go," he mutters and looks at Graham.

"I hope this works." Graham mutters back. "I don't know how to get back to our own time if we lose Doc."

"Indeed," Ryan nods and they grab the console as the TARDIS starts to shake.

* * *

Doctor is panting heavily when she reaches back to the row of stones. She throws down the bag and fishes out the cables and the round thingy that is actually a battery. While it is small and beautifully decorated with Gallifreyan symbols, it's a useful thing in a time of need.

She curses when she realizes that she only took one and is almost ready to sprint back to the TARDIS, when she hears a telltale whooshing noise of her TARDIS taking off.

She sighs. "No going back now."

She sonics all around the small thin stones that the portal had used an she finds an input area. She shoves the wires in haphazardly and attaches the battery to it. Pushing in a row of symbols in the round surface, she activates the battery and hears the humming sound of the stones. She sprints to the activation stone and pushes it gently. As before, the symbols appear to the surface of the main monolith and she sprints around it, pushing the now familiar images in there.

As she predicted, the thin light of the portal starts shimmering between the thin stones.

"I knew it, battery was empty. How 21st century."

She walks towards the shimmering mass of light and squints her eyes. "I hope I am right about this."

She takes a deep breath and murmurs. "Geronimo!"


	4. Chapter 4

Yasmin covers her eyes to shield herself from the bright light as she feels the ground disappear under her. She feels this pulling sensation, like driving over a hill when your stomach drops from sudden jump. That's exactly what she experiences when all of a sudden, her feet touch the ground again. She promptly loses her balance and falls down, hand taking the harsh contact with the solid earth first.

The whole ordeal lasts only few seconds, but for Yas, it feels like forever.

When she finally draws in a breath to steady herself, she hears shuffling next to her. Startled by the movement, she looks up sharply to see this creature the Doctor and her they saw before, standing next to her, concern written to his face.

He says something to her sharply, his voice has an edge to it.

Instead of answering, Yas breathes in deeply and shakes her head to him.

He crouches down next to her and asks something else. But Yas doesn't understand the sharp sing-songy voice nor the words in it.

The creature sighs and stands up again and starts walking away from her. Yasmin just looks at him in confusion and starts to stand up from the ground, groaning when she feels her shins aching. Suddenly there is a popping sound and the creature is nowhere to be seen.

"Hello?" she calls out, but there is nobody there to answer. She turns around and looks back at the two slim stones, exact copies of the ones in the "not Stonehenge" she saw before the portal opened between them. She takes a tentative step closer. As she does that, the portal activates again, spitting out another human form.

Yas shields her face again and when the light shuts off, she sees a familiar figure standing in front of her.

"Yas, thank god you are all right! And you are here!" the Doctor beams her a big smile. She takes the few steps and closes the distance between them and pulls Yas into a bone-crushing hug.

"Why I shouldn't be here?" Yas asks softly into Doctor's collarbone. As sudden as the hug was, the Doctor releases her quickly, taking few moments to eye Yas thoroughly from head to toe to make sure she is okay.

"I don't know. I had no clue what was in the other side." Doctor smiles again and looks around the two of them. "Oh," she sighs, her voice coated with disappointment. "It looks the same in here. Minus the stones."

Yas lets loose a sigh of laughter. "What were you expecting then?"

Doctor looks back at her sharply. "I mean, this was an alien portal. I was expecting an evil lair, full of bad robots. But it's just trees and grass."

Just then they both heard another popping sound and a deep male voice interrupts the silence around them

"Sorry to disappoint you then, because we love trees and grass."

Yas gasps as she looks up to the newcomers. The Doctor reacts instinctively, pushing Yas behind her and furrows her eyebrows in confusion.

"Who are you?" she asks defensively.

"We might ask you the same," says the male elf-like creature, clad in flowy robes, looking like some kind of character from olden fairy tales. There is also two smaller sized and leather wearing elves standing behind him as well. Together they form some kind of a greeting party for the two women.

"I asked first," the Doctor dares him.

The creature throws her a sharp look. "You are trespassing on our lands."

"Your lands?" Doctor asks, scrunching her nose. "You mean the time-dilation field you have in here? Sorry about that. We didn't mean to come in here but your portal sucked my friend in and I had no other choice but follow her here."

"What do you mean 'sucked her in'?" the creature asks, eyes widening.

"You know, it pulled her here," the Doctor explains, waving her hands towards the two stones. "And poof, here she is. I had to get my battery to recharge the gate but it worked! I am here now too" she beams a smile to the elves.

"It should have not done that," the leader of the small party tells the Doctor. "It should have not 'pulled her in'. The doorway doesn't work like that."

"Well, it did," the Doctor challenges them.

Suddenly one of the smaller guys says something to the leader in the unknown language and they all nod in unison. With that, their demeanor changes completely. He opens his arms and smiles.

"Welcome to the Feriae. I am sorry that you are here in these circumstances, but now when you are here, how can we help you, travelers?"

"Feriae?" the Doctor asks, stepping closer to the new acquaintance. "What does it mean?"

"For us, it means rest and rejuvenation. I have no idea what it would mean to you," the leader answers, a tentative smile caressing his lips.

Suddenly the Doctor realizes something that has been nagging in her mind and she squints her eyes at the creatures. "How can we understand you? I mean the TARDIS's field shouldn't reach into the time-dilation field and specially when its not here anymore?"

"What do you mean it's not here?" Yas interrupts the Doctor, her eyes wide.

The Doctor casts a glance at her companion and her eyes soften. "Long story, tell you later." Then she turns back to the elves and takes another step closer to them.

The leader eyes her curiously. "We know the language of the people in here."

The Doctor furrows her brows for a little bit more and suddenly her features brighten. "You mean you have met the people of this island?"

"Sure. We even have some of them visiting us at the moment."

Doctor's eyes widen at the information. "You have humans here?"

"Of course." The leader answers.

"How?" The Doctor inquired. "It took us a while to get the gate open. How did they get here?"

The leader seems a bit uncomfortable now. He clears his throat and answers, "They have found their way to us, what does it matter?"

The Doctor breathes out for a second and it seems that she wants to ask something else. But then she relaxes and smiles at the elves. "You are right. It doesn't. So, tell us, why the time-dilation, oh elves?"

The creatures look each other in confusion. "Elves?"

Yas pipes up from behind the Doctor. "Well you look like ones."

"Oh, really? Well, we are not elves, we are Sienahs," says the leader.

Doctor looks at Yas and shakes her head. She whispers to her companion, "Never heard about them. This is exciting!"

She then turns back to the aliens in front of her. "It is nice to meet you, Sienahs. I am the Doctor and," she waves at Yas, "this is my friend Yas. She only lets her friends call her Yas."

If the aliens recognized the Doctor's name, they didn't show it.

"I am glad to meet you, travelers. Let's move to the village," the leader suggests pointing to the row of trees with his hand. "There is no point of standing here in the gateway. We have food and water for you."

"Sounds good," the Doctor nods and grabs Yas's hand before she starts walking towards the Sienahs. She squeezes it and whispers to her, "Are you okay, I heard you groan before?"

Yas tries to rack her brain and figure out when, but she gives up quickly. "Just my legs. I think I hurt them when I landed here."

"Oh, okay." The Doctor nods. "Is it very bad?"

"No," Yas shakes her head and points to the aliens who have now turned around and starting to walk towards the trees. "We should follow them."

"Yes," the Doctor nods and releases her hand. "Let's go."

She turns around and walks next to Yas until the catch up with the guys.

"So, what's your name?" she asks from the leader-guy.

"Moro," he answers simply. "And these are my friends Arve and Naimah"

"Nice to meet you," she smiles to the two leather-clad guys before turning attention back to the main elf.

"You didn't answer my question before," she pushes the topic again, making Yas sigh behind her. "Why the time-dilation field."

"The time runs too fast in this galaxy. Our bodies are not used to the rapid flow. To survive here, we needed something from home."

"Too fast?" the Doctor stares at Moro, "What do you mean too fast? I have never had time passing to fast."

"I do not know what species you are, Doctor, but our species is sensitive to the flow of time. It needs to be exact for our bodies and minds to be alive."

"But why come here then?" Doctor asks. "If the time is rough here, why did you even come here?"

"Oh, we didn't plan to," Moro smiles bitterly. "We were just on a survey mission to this solar system when our ship had a gentle meeting with a comet and we had to land here to fix it. We have been trying to find raw material, but this planet lacks many of the things we need. The time-dilation comes within our ship to make this place survivable for us."

"So you crash-landed here some time ago and now you are just living here?" the Doctor queries, trying to wrap her brain around the new information. "How long have you been here?"

"For us, maybe few months?" Moro hums, looking at the sky.

"But for the rest of the planet?" Doctor asks, more from herself than any of the elves.

"Probably a few hundred years," Moro finishes the sentence for her. "At least that's what our calculations show."

"Few hundred years?" the Doctor asks, looking at him intently, mouth agape.

The alien nods. "Give or take few years."

"Shit," the Doctor whispers

* * *

 ** _If you like the story or the new chapter, let me know via likes and comments. I really appreciate them._**


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